Boise State hurdler wins DQ appeal, advances to Olympic semifinal

Jordin Andrade ran fast enough in his Olympic debut Monday to advance to the semifinals of the men’s 400-meter hurdles.

That was just the start of the former Boise State and current Cape Verde runner’s day.

Andrade, whose father was born in the island nation west of Africa, finished fourth in the sixth heat in 49.35 seconds. He knocked over the final hurdle and was disqualified under IAAF Rule 168.7, which covers (a) trailing the foot or leg below the horizontal plane of the top of the hurdle or (b) deliberately knocking down the hurdle. He protested the ruling, and a jury of appeals overturned it about eight hours after the race ended.

Andrade qualified 20th for Tuesday night’s 24-man semifinals by running .11 shy of his personal best, which he set en route to a second-place finish at the 2015 NCAA Championships.

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The top two in each semi automatically qualify for Thursday’s final, and the top two remaining times also advance. Annsert Whyte of Jamaica was the top Round 1 qualifier at 48.37, and eighth-place Haron Koech of Kenya finished in 48.77.